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MVS to Bring WiMax to Mexico
(01 Dec 2009, BWCS Staff)Mexican telecoms operator MVS Comunicaciones has announced plans to pour US$700 million into launching WiMax services in 23 Mexican cities. According to reports on Bloomsberg business news, the company will work with US WiMax giant Clearwire and technology company Intel to launch the network south of the Rio Grande in the second half of next year. However, it is not clear how much each of the partners plan to put into the venture.
MVS said, through a spokesman, that it expects to win approval from the government for its plans by the end of this year. The Mexican communications company, which currently operates satellite TV and broadband services, has requested an extension to its licence which will allow it to operate WiMax services. It plans to offer voice calls as well as data and video services to the inhabitants of most of the major urban conurbations in Mexico.
Clearwire made it clear that the MVS project is separate from its own plans to build a WiMax network across the US. In a statement early last month, the US-based WiMax operator said it would get another US$1.56 billion from its investors, including Intel and Sprint Nextel to avoid running out of cash as it builds out its network.
The American operator, which is 51% owned by Sprint Nextel, added Atlanta to its network in late summer this year and is currently rolling out its system to cover Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Dallas/Fort Worth. Charlotte, Seattle, and Honolulu are among the 80 cities (120 million people) that Clearwire says it will cover by the end of next year. In September of this year, the company reported that it had 500,000 customers - the vast majority of whom are pre-WiMax subscribers.
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